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Biotreatment of a Point‐Source Industrial Wastewater Arising in 3, 4‐Dichloroaniline Manufacture Using an Extractive Membrane Bioreactor
Author(s) -
Brookes P. R.,
Livingston A. G.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
biotechnology progress
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.572
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1520-6033
pISSN - 8756-7938
DOI - 10.1021/bp00025a008
Subject(s) - bioreactor , wastewater , membrane bioreactor , pulp and paper industry , biochemical engineering , industrial wastewater treatment , membrane , chemistry , environmental science , chromatography , process engineering , environmental engineering , engineering , biochemistry , organic chemistry
A novel membrane bioreactor has been used to detoxify an industrial “point‐source” wastewater containing aniline, 4‐chloroaniline (4CA), 2, 3‐dichloroaniline (23DCA), and 3, 4‐dichloroaniline (34DCA). This wastewater arises during the process of manufacturing 34DCA. Direct biological treatment of this wastewater is difficult without some form of pretreatment or dilution due to its inorganic composition. The reactor system described overcomes this problem by selectively extracting the anilines from the wastewater by means of a membrane separation step and transferring them into a biological growth compartment (biomedium) where they are biodegraded by specifically enriched microorganisms. This article reports the use of a membrane bioreactor configuration that uses shell and tube membrane modules linked to a CSTR bioreactor via a recirculating biomedium flow. The reactor system has successfully extracted and biodegraded the targeted pollutants from industrial wastewater samples over an operating period of 5 months with removal efficiencies of over 99% at wastewater residence times of less than 2 h.